Philosophers have come up with a bunch of elaborate, if flawed, arguments for moral realism over the years. This professor gave me the book The Moral Universe which is a recent instance of this. To be fair, people who haven’t already gotten got by modern philosophy or religion can be sold a form of anti-realism with simple thought experiments, like the aliens who desire nests with prime-numbered stones from IABIED.
I think moral realism is something many people believe for emotional reasons (“How DARE you suggest otherwise?”), but it’s also a conclusion that can be gotten to with subtly flawed abstract reasoning.
You could probably sidestep the moral realism debate when talking about x-risk, because it seems plausible that AI could be wrong about morality, or it could simply be an unfeeling force of nature to which moral reasoning doesn’t apply. I’m realizing now that if I wasn’t so eager to debate morality, I could’ve avoided it altogether.
I updated a bit towards thinking that incompetence-at-reasoning is a more common/influential factor than I previously thought. Thanks.
However: Where do you think that moral realism comes from? Why is it a “thorny” issue?
Philosophers have come up with a bunch of elaborate, if flawed, arguments for moral realism over the years. This professor gave me the book The Moral Universe which is a recent instance of this. To be fair, people who haven’t already gotten got by modern philosophy or religion can be sold a form of anti-realism with simple thought experiments, like the aliens who desire nests with prime-numbered stones from IABIED.
I think moral realism is something many people believe for emotional reasons (“How DARE you suggest otherwise?”), but it’s also a conclusion that can be gotten to with subtly flawed abstract reasoning.
You could probably sidestep the moral realism debate when talking about x-risk, because it seems plausible that AI could be wrong about morality, or it could simply be an unfeeling force of nature to which moral reasoning doesn’t apply. I’m realizing now that if I wasn’t so eager to debate morality, I could’ve avoided it altogether.